The Welsh Affairs’ Select Committee has produced a report on the Legislative Competence Order system which correctly identifies one of the reason why it is unfit for purpose but bizarrely concludes that it can be made to work better.
The report identifies that requests from the Welsh Government for extra powers too often “disappear in the black hole of Whitehall”. They say that Whitehall departments’ sluggishness in clearing requests for additional devolution is creating long delays. They cited the plan to devolve extra responsibility for environmental policy, held up for nearly two years, and a bid to give the Assembly power to install fire sprinklers in new homes as examples of the slow progress.
In the report, MPs say: “We have identified some procedural problems, most notably long and unaccountable delays in the process of negotiation between the Welsh Assembly Government and the Whitehall department or departments that sometimes occurs before an LCO is referred to us.
“There is an unacceptable lack of transparency within the Whitehall clearance process. The Wales Office should provide this committee with a monthly update on the progress of all proposed LCOs together with an explanation of any delays.”
After numerous complaints about the jargon used in some LCOs, the MPs also note that, “it should not be beyond the reach of language to provide in addition a simple statement of what the LCO will enable the National Assembly for Wales to do”.
They also suggest fast-tracking the process for less controversial LCOs, and say there needs to be a comprehensive “Welsh statute book”, available on-line, so the public can access what is in an increasingly distinct body of Welsh law
However, the Peter Hain’s suggestion that the process is growing in “strength, effectiveness and transparency” is a classic piece of misdirection. He and the Committee are most probably right that the Whitehall bureaucracy can be trimmed back, in fact it will need to be if the latest LCOs on Housing and Transport are to get approval before Parliament rises for the General Election. However, that does not account for the time and money wasted in Cardiff Bay and Westminster drawing up and scrutinising these orders without any concrete benefit for the people of Wales, in terms of changes to the quality of their lives, coming out of the other end.
In addition to that of course is the sheer impracticality of elected politicians in the Welsh Assembly having to implement their manifesto pledges when there is a near-two year delay built into every legislative proposal, not to mention having to ask MPs for permission to deliver a democratically-endorsed programme for government. The process remains unfit for purpose and is far from the success story that some MPs suggest.
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Perhaps some sort of timetable standing order is needed: if the ministry has not responded in full within seven days, they are held not to object to any remaining provisions of the order.